Two-bus treatments

Before sending your latest masterpiece to a mastering engineer, it’s essential that the mixdown is as good as it can be – clear, punchy and evenly balanced in terms of tone and dynamics, helping it stand up against other well-mixed releases in the same genre.

This is achieved by processing individual tracks, as well as collective groups of said tracks. When it comes to the final output channel, however, it’s generally recommended to avoid any master processing and leave this free for a mastering pro to do his or her thing. the master bus and influence the mix in a way that isn’t possible when mastering once the track is finished. With the flexibility that software provides, you may as well give this workflow a try – it’s easy enough to bypass everything on your master output and evaluate whether you’ve improved or ruined everything!